Pro-drilling crowd stress love for land

Sep. 13, 2010

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BINGHAMTON -- There were no celebrities, no politicians, and no musical instruments or dances. The only costumes were the white T-shirts and green caps donned by natural gas supporters.

But that didn't mean the pro-drilling demonstrators at the EPA meeting Monday at The Forum -- almost all of them members of the state Joint Landowners Coalition or the Local Laborers 785 -- didn't have a point to make.

"I'm a taxpayer and a homeowner, and I find it crazy we can't get natural gas out of our land," said Joe Pauline, a landowner from the Town of Binghamton.

The pro-drilling rally, held on the north end of Washington Street, hit fever pitch about 11 a.m., when a crowd of approximately 100 broke out into chants of "Pass the gas!" and "Safe drilling now!"

That didn't last for long, though. Within an hour, the rally had largely dispersed. Some had gone inside The Forum to hear the testimony, while others attended a brunch across the street in the basement of the Regency Hotel that was sponsored by America's Natural Gas Alliance, an industry association.

Among those attending the pro-drilling brunch was Lisa Young, who said she loves her 69 acres of land in the Town of Binghamton "like a person in (her) family" and wouldn't have leased her land for drilling if she thought it would harm it.

"It seems like the camps have separated into you're either for the environment or for drilling, and that never the twain shall meet," Young said. "But I'm for both."

That was a sentiment echoed by many who rallied in favor of drilling, including Dan Fitzsimmons president of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York. Fitzsimmons said fear over hydraulic fracturing is driven by misinformation, and accused anti-drilling activists of having a 'not in my backyard' mentality.

"They're not environmentalists. The landowners are the environmentalists," Fitzsimmons said.

Some, like Alex Parillo, representative and field organizer for the Local Laborers 785, spent the day in amicable debates with members of the anti-drilling crowd and tried to spell out the logic behind their views.

"I'd just as soon get along with these people," he said.

Others were more critical of their opponents.

"These are transients, leftover hippies roaming from town to town looking for a place to stay," Marie Drankoski said of the protestors, while the beat of the anti-drilling bongo drums reverberated in the background.

"We have the facts; they have the fear," said Douglas Lee, a landowner from Livingston Manor. "It's safe, it's clean, it's good for the nation -- but politics gets in the way."